Get ready to par-tay with New Orleans’ Jazz from trumpeter,
singer, composerKermit Ruffins’ – We Partyin’ Traditional
Style! with his band,The BBQ Swingers released on the Basin Street Records label. Traditional
New Orleans Jazz has never sounded better, so roll up your carpets, get
out your parasol, and get ready to dance!

Kermit Ruffins – We Partyin’ Traditional Style!: Chinatown,
Exactly Like You, Careless Love, I Guess I’ll Get The Papers And Go Home,
Jeepers Creepers, When It’s Sleepy Time Down South, Treme Second Line Intro,
Treme Second Line, Over The Waves, All Of Me, Marie, When The Saints Go
Marching In

Kermit Ruffins – We
Partyin’ Traditional Style! was produced by Tracey Freeman and Executive
Producer Mark Samuels on the Basin
Street Records label.

When Edward Nesta and I were planning a Mardi Gras theme
party for our niece, Nicole’s birthday in November, we went to our enviable
collection of CDs and found the perfect music to accompany cocktails and hors
d’oeuvres with Kermit Ruffins’ latest release, We Partyin’ Traditional
Style! Born in New Orleans,
this native son of The Big Easy started playing trumpet in the 8th
grade and has never looked back, continuing to grow as a trumpeter, singer,
composer, and bandleader. For this release, he pays homage to old style New
Orleans Jazz with music from the start of the 20th century and
continues with songs from the 1930s.

We Partyin’ Traditional
Style! features 12-tracks of traditional New Orleans Jazz that will have
you dancing with or without a parasol in your hand from the opening track until
the CD closes with you wishing that there were just a few more tracks on this
deliciously fun release.

The release opens with the track, Chinatown,written by William Jerome, Jean Schwartz, and Paul Rodriguez with an
excellent drum solo and the rollicking brass band sound that defines New
Orleans Jazz, and then does an easy slide into the incomparable 1930 song, Exactly
Like You, written by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields with its banjo opening
and catchy lyrics.

Next in the line-up is the traditional song, Careless
Love, which was “one of the best known pieces in the repertory of the Buddy
Bolden band in New Orleans, Louisiana at the start of the 20th century, and has
remained a Jazz standard and Blues standard.”

I Guess I’ll Get The Papers And Go Home written by
Hugie Prince, Dick Rodgers, and Hal Kanner follows, its lyrics lamenting, “Yes,
I guess I'll get the papers and go home , Like I've been doin' ever since we've
been apart…” Kermit continues with the 1938 Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer
song, Jeepers Creepers that had us on the dance floor jumping around 30s
style, and he keeps the 1930s vibe going with the song, When It’s Sleepy
Time Down South, a tune written in 1931 by Clarence Muse, Leon René, and
Otis René.

Kermit takes the lead and shows his prowess and composer on
the next two tracks, Treme Second Line Intro, and Treme Second Line.
Treme “is one of the oldest neighborhoods in New Orleans and is an important center of
African-American and Creole culture, and the modern brass band
tradition.” Second Line is defined as “a tradition in brass band parades
in New Orleans, Louisiana. The “main line” or “first line”
is the main section of the parade, or the members of the actual club with the
parading permit as well as the brass band. Those who follow the band just to
enjoy the music are called the “second line.” The second line's style of traditional
dance, in which participants walk and sometimes twirl a parasol or handkerchief
in the air, is called “second lining.”

Over The Waves written by Juventino Rosas (1868 –
1894), the popular Jazz standard All Of Me written in 1931 by Gerald
Marks and Seymour Simons, and the 1929 Irving Berlin song Marie
follow before the closing track, When The Saints Go Marching In, which
is an American Gospel hymn and the quintessential theme song when it comes to
traditional New Orleans music, that had us dancing with our parasols all the
way into the dining room for a New Orleans culinary feast. As they say in New Orleans, “Laissez les
bons temps roulez” (Let the good times roll).

So, pick up a copy of Kermit Ruffins – We Partyin’
Traditional Style!, mix up a batch of traditional New Orleans cocktails like
the Sazerac or the Hurricane, serve Shrimp Remoulade, Creole Gumbo or
Jambalaya, and throw yourself a party – New Orleans style, no matter where you
live. Do not be shy, dare to be bold, Kermit Ruffins will show you the way to
party traditional style!